EA Spouse

[wco81]

$30-38k?

That must be a tester, not a developer.

 

[passerby]

Former EA employee posting under real name.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/joestraitiff/368.html

 

[passerby]

$30-38k?

That must be a tester, not a developer.

No, not a 'lowly tester' 'only thing'.

worked at EA (for nine months) and can confirm that this story is absolutely true. I worked in the entertainment industry as an artist for over 12 years (7 years creating video games and 5 years working on movies) and was brought into EA with many enticing promises, such as bonuses and stock options. However, I could not make it through one year to cash-in on any of these "rewards". The work environment was one where those that worked the insane hours of uncompensated overtime either hated doing it or began hating those who wouldn't work it. Not coming in on a weekend was often perceived as a lack of supporting the team and became an instant excuse to be trashed in a performance review, which subsequently resulted in a zero bonus. Remember, these bonuses were mainly used as "carrots" to keep the crew working towards a "reward", which could literally be withheld for almost any reason. If a producer or manager didn't like you nor understood your need for a life outside of work, then all those hours of unpaid overtime would amount to purely time lost without any compensation. Moreover, many managers and leads were single guys in their mid-twenties, who had little or no management experience, let alone the knowledge to effectively complete a project on time other than by slave-driving those under them. Even when an artist's given tasks were completed, he still had to come in whenever the rest of the team was there, to playtest the game and search for game bugs. The prevailing attitude was that weekends were something that EA gave as a gift to it's employees at it's discretion. In my specific case, because of my prior experience, I knew to leave at the end of the day when my work was done. After all, I felt I had paid my dues of working insane hours as a young man. But never have I experienced the kind of abuse "by design" that I saw at EA. Ultimately, I left EA and am now happily working elsewhere. EA thrives on bringing in young talent. Persons who are straight out of school; excited just to be working at a brand name company like EA, creating video games for a living. If this was also your dream...beware!

Lots of stories to wade thru - it has gotten on the discussion boards of many sites now.

Just in case, there are good stories as well...

Neversoft
The makers on Tony Hawk produce consistently excellent games, and have developered a unique work schedule. A normal work week is 40 hours...spread out over four days, Monday through Thursday. Lunch is provided free for all employees every day of the week. When crunch rolls around, they work an additional 10-hour day on Friday. From what I am told, the company is closed and the office is locked on Saturdays to prevent people from coming in.

 

[3dcgi]

Engineers who are skilled who are laid off have no problem finding other jobs.

That's a rather sheltered opinion. I know a number of talented engineers, software and hardware, that have had trouble finding jobs. It was especially difficult finding jobs they actually liked. And most of these engineers were willing to relocate.

 

[DemoCoder]

Engineers who are skilled who are laid off have no problem finding other jobs.

That's a rather sheltered opinion. I know a number of talented engineers, software and hardware, that have had trouble finding jobs. It was especially difficult finding jobs they actually liked. And most of these engineers were willing to relocate.

And I've been in the industry for 13+ years and I nor my friends have had much problems. Only in 2001 did it get bad in California, if you were a low level technie. If you don't like working for EA, then go somewhere else. I've worked at companies for *zero* salary and 80+hr weeks during the 90s, for the promise of stock. This industry need unions like Bill Gates needs charity. The very idea that promotion, salary, benefits, et al can be standardized across a large number of workers in an industry like this, where small teams of highly energized meritocratic folks work on radically different products, is ludicrous.

$30/38k salary? You can't be serious. I don't even know quality assurance people who make so little. Salaries that low usually mean a startup company with low funding. I don't believe a qualified C++ programmer with multiyear experience is pulling down $30k. Go look at Gamasutra's salary survey, which includes EA data. $30k is way off.

No experienced programmer I know wants anything to do with collective bargaining. For the most part, you deal with small companies anyway. And if your resume has got the right experience, you can extract a high price and benefits anyway.

 

[Jov]

After reading all this, I thought I used to pull long hours for poor management!

Just looked thru my 60+ game collection, I don't see many EA games, and those that are EA were probably bargain bins.

Can anyone list real AAA titles from EA (I am not assuming they don't have good devs)?

 

[Leto]

Madden, Battlefield, NFSU, Burnout, The Sims come to mind.

 

[Jov]

Madden, Battlefield, NFSU, Burnout, The Sims come to mind.

I don't play any you've mentioned. I wonder what repercussion this will have on EA sales over the Xmas period.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

None of those games are AAA except Madden. The rest are decent AA titles. Nevertheless, EA's quality has been improving steadily since the introduction of the original PS. I would have rated their games about a 6/10 back then and about a 7/10 by PS2 launch. Now they consistently make a lot of 8 - 8.5/10 games. I don't own any yet, but I've rented a few.

 

[passerby]

I don't play any you've mentioned. I wonder what repercussion this will have on EA sales over the Xmas period.

I don't think any at all. Unless this stuff gets carried on some major publication, then the media blows it big enough, and somehow some mentality catches on in the public.

But it does affect us, the consumers, in some ways, at least I feel that way. And my thoughts apply to all the studios.

Developers, burnt-out and disillusioned after 3-5 years, quit the industry. So studios are in constant short-supply of veterans. And valuable experience can do wonders, even cutting development costs.

Besides, as so many people can attest, people are most productive at reasonable working hours, and 'not unhappy'.

Eventually the game that we get at the end for that 40USD 'could have been much better'.

 

[3dcgi]

Engineers who are skilled who are laid off have no problem finding other jobs.

That's a rather sheltered opinion. I know a number of talented engineers, software and hardware, that have had trouble finding jobs. It was especially difficult finding jobs they actually liked. And most of these engineers were willing to relocate.

And I've been in the industry for 13+ years and I nor my friends have had much problems. Only in 2001 did it get bad in California, if you were a low level technie. If you don't like working for EA, then go somewhere else. I've worked at companies for *zero* salary and 80+hr weeks during the 90s, for the promise of stock. This industry need unions like Bill Gates needs charity. The very idea that promotion, salary, benefits, et al can be standardized across a large number of workers in an industry like this, where small teams of highly energized meritocratic folks work on radically different products, is ludicrous.

$30/38k salary? You can't be serious. I don't even know quality assurance people who make so little. Salaries that low usually mean a startup company with low funding. I don't believe a qualified C++ programmer with multiyear experience is pulling down $30k. Go look at Gamasutra's salary survey, which includes EA data. $30k is way off.

No experienced programmer I know wants anything to do with collective bargaining. For the most part, you deal with small companies anyway. And if your resume has got the right experience, you can extract a high price and benefits anyway.

I assume you're responding to other posts here in addition to mine because I didn't say anything about a union. I have no desire to see a union either. My point was not all good engineers can find a job immediately. In many cases it can take a number of months to find a good job and some people cannot afford to quit their current job while they look. It can be especially difficult if a lot of qualified engineers are laid off at the same time.

 

[3dcgi]

Two EA games I enjoyed in the past few years are The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

 

[Evil_Cloud]

Eventually the game that we get at the end for that 40USD 'could have been much better'.

It's 60 to 68 euro's here... Damn rip-off.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I hate corporate EA, but I will not forsake NFSU & NFSU2 just out of principle...

(Sorry, I'm weak. )